On the ground floor, through a simple unlocked door more reminiscent of a school than a temple, is a chamber with only a comfortable armchair in its center. A spiral staircase travels downward into darkness and up toward several floors of high-ceilinged rooms: teeming libraries, glass laboratories, opulent bedchambers. Nearly every surface of the tower looks as if it were woven together with writing: words of power, protective glyphs, alphabets of esoterica, all engraved, or painted, or chalked. Sometimes the writing is linear and orderly; sometimes it appears in shocking sprays of chaos.
